In this issue, we’re joining our artists, writers, healers, and musicians in recasting narratives. As we encourage others to pursue their journeys and think about the stories they want to tell, we’re committed to finding what suits our own lives and what sustains us individually and as a magazine. Along with the women and non-binary creators featured here, we’re casting off ideas that don’t serve us, casting spells on the patriarchy, casting light on the ever-present stigma and clouds of mental illness, and casting off inauthentic selves. You can think of this issue as a cast that holds space for something while it heals, or a material being cast and sculpted again and again. We’re casting off people who try to impose their limitations and concepts of who we are and what we should be doing on us—performing a ritual cleansing and making our own ceremonies.

CMS artists at Human Resources Los Angeles

Quite a few other fine musicians are changing their residencies temporarily to there as well... mostly because they are on tour.... please consider bringing some dough, the dough you saved on ticket prices and expensive drinks, and make a donation to these bands, if you can.

Merch of all sorts will be available too.. just make sure to plan on being there the day of a performer's performance if you want their swag... and you will be purchasing that goodness direct from the acts.

Shows are ALL AGES... there are sadly no handicapped accessible bathrooms in Human Resources so please plan accordingly.

There will be water and refreshments for sale as well.. Cash only please... we are still in the dark ages

Thank you ahead of time and hope to see you out and about!

8:15pm - A ∩ D - we will not dwell in the sadness that the Deep Silence could not play but revel in the happiness that Ang Wilson and Devin Sarno will be kicking this whole festival off in high style. Come float with us and leave this heavy world behind.

9pm - McCann / Sullivan / Twomey - returning for another performance at this fine hall, these three challengers of sound and thought will take us down the road on a journey we will not soon forget. Live and recorded media mix and weave together creating a 4th dimension of tone and texture.

10pm - KID606 - a fave of mine for many many years, and now I get to watch him play up close and personal.. Get yourself ready for a multi-channel video presentation as well.. .next level indeed'

11pm - SANA SHENAI - timeless in its existence, this superduo of DNTEL (Jimmy Tamborello) and Mitchell Brown have just recently unleashed an EP on Leaving Records that broke a few End of Year lists for 2018... Come see and hear them start their work in a new year.

then around MIDNIGHT we are proud to bring you PERPETUAL DRONE, an extended block of drone and sound bath performances, hosted by Miguel de Pedro and his epic crew. They have been captivating and fascinating LA audiences for years with light and sound magic!

so far we have TOM HALL (Sonoptik/Cycling74/Elli), JONATHAN SNIPES (clipping), JOHN CARROLL KIRBY (Leaving Records), JAKE MUIR (Sferic/Further), and CHRIS AVITABILE (Collapsible Animals) performing back to back to back 30 min sets!!!!!

Beginning to End: Day 2

Saturday, March 9 doors 11:30am

free

cash bar

noon - Saint Cecilia will serenade us over coffee and donuts. Sweetness and light served with a hot splash of wake-up!!!!

12:45 - Soft Sailors - Geoff Geis and crew bring their new musical project to the stage/floor of HR to help kick the second day in the butt, softly. Sail away with them.

1:30 - Daniel Brummel and Emily Lacy - the heavens open up, the soil sings... mechanical birds flitter and tweet... this is vocal folk for the yoga age... restful and swelling at the same time.

2:30 - Derek Monypeny - back in the day, this band came from Oakland called Oaxacan. They raged in such a mind-bending way that was unforgettable... Luckily the guitarist Derek came back and has played at HR both as a solo oudist (?) and with his newer collective ALTO! so it was a no brainer to have him join us again.

3:00 - Sahba Sizdahkhani - you will remember this name once you see this gentleman play his Persian santour.

4:00 - the Gift Machine - friends from San Diego up for a visit to our lovely city, bringing with them beautifully crafted songs of happy sadness.

6:00 - Timonium - i am sorry, what year is it? well hold onto your pilows cuz Timonium is taking over HR for an hour, rocking like a granny on a porch. Dreamy shoe gaze the likes of which hasn't walked this earth for 15 years.

7:15 - Voice on Tape - i like to heckle this guy, but it is only because i am so jealous of his songwriting craft, effortless guitar playing and super romantic voice.

12:30 - 4am - Psychobabes Afterhours presented by Crass Lips Records with Autosex, bite marx, Mr California and the State Police, Kinetic Attack, Squirrel Spam, Gaylord Fiend and Spring Bleeding... Crass Lips Records, label home of the insanely prolific and prophetic Period Bomb and it is my honor to have them curate this fine celebration of new California music

2:15 Rust Worship - the answer is in the tapes, cut and repeat, loop and destroy.

3:00 Gabie Strong and Christopher Reid Martin - two heads are better than one... individually these two slay, but together, hide your mind lest it be blasted

3:45 LOOP GOAT - Californian by way of Michigan, Jessica A's sometimes masked persona careens and caresses her guitar and voice thru cascades of distortion and processing, hypnotizing her prey before going in for the kill.

4:30 Witches of Malibu - funny to think of the darkest sounds coming from the nicest people. Such is the distinct case with the electro-wizardry of the pedal and box wielder that is cloaked as Witches of Malibu... Surf the blood red tide with us.

5:30 Rogue Squares - the combined might of Elaine Carey and Carlos Giffoni, rocking the permutations of vibrations and the waves that save.

6:15 Conscious Summary - main man at the (Handbag) Factory, shining hope for all things independent and good, Samur also has created a beautifully frightening multimedia performance that is not to be missed.

7:00 Ian E. Wellman - another bright spot in the landscape of LA's experimental music scene, Ian has just released a stellar full length on Dragon's Eye and has also continued to thrill us in the duo ZZyzxxzyzz

8:15 ANDORKAPPEN - A stalwart supporter and protagonist of all things extreme and true, ANDORKAPPEN is a distillation of sound and rhythm, a black hole of limitless energy (til he spills his drink on it)

8:45 GASP - another timeless classic, still evolving and warping into your earholes. GASP is the best of so many worlds and also chock full of many friends of HRLA.

9:30 Skyline Electric - always an epic adventure, this band of crazies was definitely first on my list to play this fest. They have the uncanny ability to wrap up tight as a ball of rubberbands and then spring out and fill a huge space like a cloud of laughing gas.

10:45 Whirlynn - You can't take LA out of this current Floridian. Vanessa Whirlynn is coming back west to show her hometown what's up, with keyboard, kaos pad and voice. Mystic references to Broadcast and Portishead abound but wrapped together in an all-new shell.

11:15 Taleen Kali - blissful cycles of tone and light to calm the fest in its last hours. A true innovator and creator in the LA landscape, we are pleased and proud to host this artist.

DREAM STATE was first composed and performed in residency at LAND AND SEA in Oakland, CA, November 2016. My original intention when accepting the residency had been to make an audiovisual piece in response to Agnes Varda’s Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse––her mixed-media, mixed-documentary work about picking up scraps left behind after perceived value had been harvested. However, the work spun out after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, and turned focus toward Varda’s bigger-picture mode of thinking and making––that subjectivity cannot be divorced from the creative output, that reality is what we make of ourselves in it, that a document is just another filter for perception of the world we exist in. My sentiments were dark––that the nature of reality was fracturing. I spent hours in the Bay Area fog, watching gargantuan ships load and unload immense amounts of cargo at the Oakland Port. Everything moving along the same as it had, but heavier and more opaque.

At the time, I described DREAM STATE as such:

“I thought that in making a film… I wouldn’t want to be separate from it, to live in another world.” - Agnes Varda

This is a hard dream to wake up to. This is a hard reality to realize is not a dream.

This new work is made of up of equal parts better described by the work of Agnes Varda, and her glaneurs: “fieldwork; mental activity (gleaning of images, impressions, emotions, information (choses de l’esprit); ethos of pragmatism, altruism, modesty of means and ends, but also disruption and non-compliance; self-portrait (... the one travelling and gleaning images).”

Two years later, I revisited DREAM STATE knowing that my instincts had not altered much, but merely settled and dried like concrete. I sought to finish the work more cleanly, more sharply, to reinforce this idea that nothing perceived is enforceable, nothing sensed is true, paradoxical as it is.

Micaela Tobin is a classically trained soprano and sound artist who makes her own hybrid of noise-opera under the moniker “White Boy Scream” as a process of reclaiming and reconciling the construct of the “diva”. Her latest release, “Remains” is an accumulation of pieces composed between 2015-2017 that bear witness to her unique process of dissecting her operatic voice through the use of electronic fx pedals. The album itself serves as a tender and abstracted dedication to the poetry of a late friend.

She is also on tour supporting her new release with artist William Hutson (clipping).

12 SYMBOLS, composed by Chris Duncan, is an immersive sound performance and exhibition that metaphorically implicates the energy and patterns of the sun, moon, and the phenomenon of the eclipse to ponder our relationship to the passing of time. Cymbals become Symbols as 12 percussionists engage light, movement, and sound. The physical stage set by the initial performance of 12 SYMBOLS moves through phases throughout the course of the exhibition, welcoming a host of artists from Northern and Southern California alike in a series of performances. The exhibition and performances are dedicated to the loving memory of Paul Clipson, a light and love gone too soon.

Chris Duncan is an Oakland California-based artist who employs time, repetition, accumulation and transcendence as a basis for experiments in visual and sound based media. An overriding theme in current works is the use of natural forces, such as the sun, the moon and the ocean as conceptual and compositional prompts for both visual and sonic efforts. He has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally. Outside of his studio practice, Duncan, along with his partner Maria Otero, runs LAND AND SEA, a small press and project space in Oakland. Chris Duncan received his BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts, his MFA from Stanford University, and is represented by Halsey Mckay NY.christopherrobinduncan.virb.com

VOLUME is a collective of creative individuals dedicated to presenting time-based work by emerging and established artists engaged in sound based practices, including performance, experimental music, field recording, voice, radio, movement, and technology. Through performances, concerts, exhibitions, screenings, and workshops, VOLUME aims at fostering a critical understanding of politics and aesthetics in relation to sound and sound based practices. As a curating body, VOLUME intends to cultivate social and public activities, contributing to the contemporary sonic arts scene of Los Angeles.

Kchung Radio is pleased to present a dynamic lineup featuring performers from our community at large who engage in discursive themes relating to body-politics, identity representation, gender fluidity, and poetic expression. http://kchungradio.org

Pod Blotzhttps://soundcloud.com/podblotzPod Blotz mixes electronics, modular synth recordings, vox, rhythmic elements, tape manipulation, metals, field recordings and organ swells. Industrial music dark in context, bright in texture inside of multi-dimensional environments with shattered mirrors, sculptures, video and light. Her performances have been witnessed at the Berkeley Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Masonic Temple at Hollywood Forever, Teragram Ballroom, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, 23five Incorporated, The Lab, Queen's Nails Projects, Southern Exposure, San Jose Museum of Art, Transmodern Festival and Portland Institute of Art. Pod Blotz has also played in various warehouses and clubs throughout the US and in Europe and has played other festivals such as Trip Metal Fest, Katabatik Kampout, No Fun, Colour Out of Space, INC and Neon Marshmellow Fest.

Bana Haffar https://soundcloud.com/banahaffarmusichttps://www.instagram.com/modularonthespot/Haffar is an LA-based multi-instrumentalist and modular synth aficionada. Haffar is also the co-organizer of Modular on the Spot, a monthly outdoor synth happening on the LA river.

Julius SmackJulius Smack is a statue awoken from antiquity who performs in the vogue tradition. He has released two albums on Practical Records and will release a new single on 7” later this year.

Jasmine NyendePerformance artist Jasmine Nyende works largely within the realm of ephemeral media, focusing on deleted posts from a range of social media platforms as an exploration of individual subjectivity and the shame in public memory. For ALAC 2017 Nyende presents new poetry alongside home movie footage reflecting on her childhood experiences in South Los Angeles’ Leimert Park and how the neighborhood has developed since that time. Her performance weaves between a subjective personal history and a consideration of how public memory influences the construction of self.

Ted Byrnes is an improviser/percussionist living in Los Angeles. An alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he comes from a jazz background and has since made his home in the worlds of free improvisation, electro-acoustic music, and noise. Ted plays in a variety of aesthetic circumstances and has played with: Ulrich Krieger, John Wiese, Jeff Parker, Alfred Harth, Jaap Blonk, Torsten Mueller, Mazen Kerbaj, William Hutson, Charlemagne Palestine, Chris Cooper and others. www.tedbyrnesdrums.com

Christopher Reid MartinChristopher Reid Martin is a multidisciplinary artist, currently residing in Los Angeles. He first began working with sound in Orange County in 2004, layering sounds from various field recordings of daily life which convey living truths and over processed instrumentation as the reactionary expression. These expressions came to birth the solo project known as of Shelter Death, as it has evolved into a project in which performance and sound interplay to make for a personal reactionary experience in a perpetually decaying world.http://christopher-reid-martin.format.com/

Body of Water - Chris Duncan and Rich JacobsBODY OF WATER is a sonic collaboration between bay area artists Rich Jacobs and Chris Duncan. Leaning heavily upon geometric abstraction, BODY OF WATER's improvisational compositions combine an array of electronic and acoustic gestures-staying open- being open. https://soundcloud.com/chris-duncan-3/body-of-water-2https://soundcloud.com/chris-duncan-3/body-of-water-i

M KitchellM Kitchell is an extremely gay artist and yogi. Most recently, his book Hour of the Wolf was published by Inside the Castle. He lives in Oakland. Kitchell will be reading/performing a short text accompanied by an audio piece.http://topologyoftheimpossible.com/

J. Gordon FaylorJ. Gordon Faylor is the author of Registration Caspar (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2016), The Sycophant (TROLL THREAD), and Disgruntled 1234567890 (Basic Editions), among other works. He edits Gauss PDF and is the managing editor of SFMOMA's Open Space.

The performance will include Faylor’s own writing and samples of texts, interpolated with samples collected from various sources, including YouTube, performances by fellow poets and musicians, and field recordings.

George DuckerGeorge Ducker's work has appeared in The Awl, The Rumpus, The Believer and DumDum. A former writer for the Los Angeles Times, he lives in a cottage by the freeway. You're welcome over anytime.

¡Socorro!¡Socorro! is folk pop distortion founded in Pasadena, CA by Guy Valdez. Socorro’s music is inspired by a mixture early 90s shoegaze and mid to late 60s jangle pop. The word socorro translates to “help” or “SOS”. Released album "Flavor of the Day" on Lolipop Records.

Happy to have launched Crystalline Morphologies as a label. I started it with a focus on experimental and drone music informed by radical women artists and kindred spirits. Energy is primarily devoted to releasing unclassifiable, composed and improvised work by women, whose contributions have often been overlooked in the context of avant garde and improvised music. You can read more about what CM is, and will be, here.